


For a little while longer

by PompousPickle



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Extra tiny Tiny Tina, Feelsy things, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 22:09:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4683161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PompousPickle/pseuds/PompousPickle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being rescued from bandits, Tina tries to find something she can call her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For a little while longer

Tina kept her ear pressed to the door as the four adults talked about her. It was cold out, but the one who found her, Roland, kept telling her she was safe. Over and over. “You’re safe now. It’s okay. You’ll be safe with us.”

But here she was, locked out and helpless, listening to the four of them debate on what to do with her. Like she was a skag pup who lost her pack. She only prayed that they didn’t leave her out in the cold forever.

“She’s just a kid,” Roland said firmly. “She doesn’t want to talk about her parents. She doesn’t want to talk about home. She’s a scared kid and she has no place to go.”

“So we keep her here?” the one with a thick accent and a raspy voice responded. “Yeah because that’s going to be so much safer Roland, what with the Bandits gunning after us every day.” He snorted and then stopped talking altogether. Tina pressed closer to the door, afraid she was missing something. “What do we do with her? Brick?”

“Honestly, I have no damn clue,” a louder, brasher voice replied. “She’s a cute kid. And she got out of Hyperion alive. So she’s got guts. I say we make her a Slab, take her under our wings!”

“She’s _not_ joining your gang.” This time it was the Pretty Woman’s voice. Tina had seen her talking to Roland earlier. She couldn’t remember her name though. But she had gold eyes and tattoos. “I say we set up a home for her. I would let her stay with me, but Sanctuary is probably the best spot for her now. Mordecai, Roland, it’s up to you.”

“Then it’s settled,” Roland said decisively. Tina moved her way over to the door crack to see inside of the hut, but she could just barely see their legs shuffle as they stood around and talked.

“What’s settled? I don’t remember settling anything,” the Other Guy, Mordecai, said. “So she stays here? In Sanctuary? What? We get Tannis to babysit?”

“Let me take care of that, Mordecai. Right now she’s just a scared girl and she needs a place where she can feel safe, where she can call home, at least for now.”

_For now_. Roland’s words echoed in her head. Tina sighed and steeled herself, trying not to cry again against the door. They would get rid of her too. She knew it. She should have known it from the beginning. But when Roland first found her, saved her from some bandits, he _smiled_ at her and she thought maybe she could call him home.

_At least for now_ , she repeated to herself, before she stood up straight. _Firm and strong, like a lady,_ she said to herself, trying to remember what her mother had taught her about manners. She knocked four times. “Gentlemen and lady? May I enter the abode?” She asked, trying her best to remember the stuffy ECHOshows about aristocrats that her parents sometimes watched.

And from inside, she heard laughter. Peals of laughter as the large man, Brick, threw the door open. Before she knew what was happening, she was up in his arms. “I like you, kid! I like you a lot!”

The other three were smiling too. Smiling at _her_. Laughing with _her_. And Tina couldn’t help but smile back, just a little. Because under the dirt and ash from a long day on Pandora, she was still a girl just looking for something to hold onto, someone to call family. And she thought just then that maybe she could keep them smiling. She could keep them laughing at her. And then maybe if she could do that, she would be around longer than “at least for now”. She thought she could maybe stay around for just a little longer.


End file.
